This is Anthony's
10th season in the NBA and now he's letting Kevin Garnett's vicious trash talk
get the best of him? If that's the case, then the Knicks are in bigger trouble
than anyone realizes.

They can't have
their top player, a legitimate candidate for the MVP this season, come mentally
unglued when someone makes disparaging comments about his reportedly estranged
wife. Or his mama. Or whoever.

Question: Can you see LeBron James waiting by the other
guy's bus like that? Chris Paul? Derrick Rose? Kevin Durant? And though Kobe
Bryant probably would have been spitting mad just like Melo, the smart money
says he finds another way to find payback, a smarter, more satisfying way. That
video, and that ski cap, that's not just going to evaporate with time. Voters
will remember that. Bank on it.

But even if Anthony comes out unscathed, a larger issue could be the
fact that Garnett laid out the blueprint in how to unnerve the MVP candidate.
As grimy as Garnett's trash-talking
apparently was, there's now precedence showing how Anthony can loose his cool.
Sure, nobody in the league has as acerbic a tongue as Garnett's, but perhaps
other opponents will try to make Anthony reach his boiling point and lose focus
of the big picture.

Yes, Anthony reacted poorly, but that's something we're all guilty of a
few times per day.

I should have been nicer to the Time Warner Cable
operator. I shouldn't have given a sarcastic thumbs-up to the bus driver who
clogged the intersection during rush hour. I should stop lecturing cab drivers
about the route they're taking.

If Anthony is guilty of anything, it's acting like a New
Yorker.

We're still not even
totally sure what Garnett said to Anthony on Monday, and it really isn't all
that important. Chances are, the next player that makes reference to this
subject on the court will be ignored by Anthony, who is probably embarrassed by
this entire fiasco.

The funny thing about "the line" is that we
never know where it is, until we've already crossed it.

The good news, at least for Anthony and
Garnett, is that the issue is the past.

"According
to a league source," Newsday's Barbara Barker wrote, "Garnett and
Anthony did speak by phone Tuesday to clear the air after Monday night's
confrontation."

In other Knicks news:

• As
ESPNNewYork.com's Ian Begley wrote, Knicks coach Mike Woodson addressed the
issue with Stephen A. Smith on the 98.7 FM: "'I think we lost our
composure last night,' Woodson said on Tuesday on 'The Stephen A. Smith Show'
on ESPN New York 98.7 FM. '... We've got to play, leave the officials alone and
play the game. It's my job to make sure guys do that. Again, it's not about
individuals. This is a team game, and guys have got to be more professional
about their approach.'"

• Writing for The New
York Times' "Off the Dribble" blog, Beckley
Mason explained why the Celtics are so good at defending Anthony: "The Celtics' defense is designed to limit the impact of
isolation scorers like Anthony, and on Monday it worked like a charm. Anthony,
who was electric in the fourth quarter against Orlando on Saturday, could not
get loose with the game on the line, clanking 8 of his 10 fourth-quarter
attempts. The emotional energy hung thick at Madison Square Garden in the
fourth quarter and seemed to overwhelm Anthony, who was so unsettled that he
pursued Garnett to the Celtics' team bus after the game."

• Barker
also wrote about Iman Shumpert's first practice of the season: "Neither Woodson nor Shumpert was ready to put a timetable
on his return. Shumpert tore his ACL and meniscus in his left knee during a
first-round playoff game against the Heat last April. Shumpert revealed on
Twitter that he had been cleared for practice, adding that 'I live for games
like last night' in reference to the Knicks' closely contested loss to Boston."